Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life
was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:15
Physical death is the separation of the body from the soul and spirit. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul and spirit from God eternally. It is sometimes referred to as the second death. Neither physical death nor spiritual death is a state of non-being, unconsciousness, soul sleep, annihilation, reincarnation, etc.
Gehenna is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word for Gehennom, or Valley of Hinnom. It was located on the south/southwest side of Jerusalem. In post-Old Testament times, the Jews referred to it as the entrance of hell and later as hell itself. Because it was declared by God to be an abominable place (Jeremiah 7:31–32), the Jews could not use it for anything but the city garbage dump where fires burned continually. It existed during the time of Christ, and He repeatedly referenced this physical place that everyone was familiar with to illustrate a metaphysical place called Gehenna, or hell fire.
Hell, then, is the absolute withdrawal of God from men. Life without God, the Light of the world, is hell! One of the common words used to describe it in the Bible is “darkness.” And it is a place where God’s wrath will be poured out on all unrighteousness.
The Bible speaks a lot about the permanence of hell. The word for unending in Greek is aioonios. There is not one single instance where it means temporary or lasting only for a period of time. Another similar expression is forever and ever (eis aioonas aioonoon). It is used in reference to Christ and of God’s existence, the unending bliss of the faithful, and the unending punishment of the wicked.
God has total power over Gehenna; Satan does not. He originally created Gehenna for the devil and his angels, not for mankind. However, when people willfully reject God’s love and refuse to let Him be their Father, they become children of the Devil (1 John 3:10) and are destined for the same eternal end that awaits Satan.
In some way, the resurrection body of the unrighteous will be able to experience torment, pain, and anguish. No one is in Gehenna now because all the activity surrounding it takes place in the future. For now, all the unrighteous are in “torment,” or a temporary hell (Luke 16:19–31).
The first ones to occupy Gehenna will be the Beast and the False Prophet, and then the Devil a thousand years later. But be assured that when Satan goes to hell, he will do so as hell’s greatest prisoner—not as its chief proprietor. The second group will be the unrighteous from the Great White Throne Judgment who were not recorded in the Book of Life. Finally, Death and Hades/Torment will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Let me close with a popular question: “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” One should respond, “How could God be loving if He denied us the freedom to choose an alternative to heaven?” So, at physical death, God only ratifies man’s choices. In hell, there will be no complaint of injustice because God’s judgments are both right and righteous. The existence of hell, then, is proof of God’s love—not a contradiction of it.
